Vitebsk-Orsha Offensive

The Vitebsk-Orsha Offensive was the first phase of Operation Bagration, carried out from 23 to 28 June 1944. The 3rd Belorussian Front launched a massive offensive against Army Group Center, 15% of which had already been tied down by 270,000 Soviet partisans operation in occupied Belorussia. On 23 June 1944, a crushing artillery barrage was delivered before the 3rd Belorussian Front burst on the Third Panzer Army in the Vitebsk area. The panzer army consisted of just nine infantry divisions forward and two in reserve, with four divisions (LIII Corps) being dedicated to the defense of Vitebsk on Hitler's orders. That evening, the army's commander Georg-Hans Reinhardt convinced Army Group Center commander Ernst Busch to ask Hitler if he could evacuate the city immediately, and Hitler agreed that three divisions could fight their way out as one held Vitebsk. However, the four divisions were wiped out with the Soviets, and those who escaped the Red Army were captured and usually executed by the Soviet partisans. Reinhardt lost a second corps as Army Group Center splintered due to the Soviet assault, and the Soviets encircled the grater part of the German Ninth Army near Babruysk. The German 4th Army was nearly isolated by the Red Army's advance on Minsk, forcing them to withdraw. On 25 June, Hitler ordered for Orsha and Mogilev to be held to the last man against the 3rd and 2nd Belorussian Fronts, and two German divisions were destroyed. The offensive ended when the Red Army crossed the Berezina on 28 June, racing westward as the German forces collapsed.